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Comments Off on West Seattle Christmas lights, 12/3/07

As former apartment-dwellers, we particularly appreciate balcony brightness – and you can find a lot of it around West Seattle, especially along Harbor and Alki – but this trio of balconies is from California Avenue just south of Morgan Junction. We’re still scouting for lights and happy to get your suggestions; besides the new archive of featured lights, we also have created a map locating every place we’ve shown – click on each marker and you’ll see its location as well as a thumbnail photo. We’ll continue to update the map as each night goes by. (One more holiday note – it got a bit lost in the weather coverage but we posted our annual West Seattle Christmas tree price check yesterday afternoon.)

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Comments Off on After the deluge

Wettest December 3rd in Seattle history — now it’s cleanup time. Though we hear another shower out there, the experts all insist the worst of the weather is over (the wind advisory, for example, expired at 7 pm). If your neighborhood’s still experiencing major flood woes, let us know. Meantime, there’s a lot of other West Seattle stuff we wanted to tell you about today – but the storm got in the way; we’ll just start fresh tomorrow. First, though, a photo that came in tonight from Teresa – the playground at Sanislo Elementary during the deluge:

7:15 PM UPDATE: Went through that area of Delridge, nothing going on. So cancel that alert. Heard a city worker on the radio say Beach Drive is open again at the slide spot; will be heading out to check on that.

5:55 PM UPDATE: Could be new trouble on Delridge. “Automobile rescue” callout just popped up on the 911 site, 3800 block of Delridge (south of Skylark). Drivers heading that way, beware.

5:45 PM UPDATE: Steve reports: “Just got home (Gatewood) from SODO. First Ave S. and the high bridge were wide open.” Steve also notes that the Nucor mill is “completely dark”; we reported earlier that it had closed because of flooding – Margelyn also e-mailed earlier that she heard a radio-show caller say there’s a lot of water in Nucor’s basement and it might be closed a while; we’ll be checking on that but would also love to hear from anyone with firsthand updates.

5:09 PM UPDATE: OK, said team member has made it home. Summary: Not raining right now. Smooth sailing on The (high) Bridge, and beyond. Thinks maybe lots of people went home early. P.S. Check below in a few minutes for some added pix of today’s Delridge Deluge … we’ve received more, but don’t want to put them atop the commute info here till everyone’s home safe, so the post will be filed just BELOW this one.

4:42 PM UPDATE: Team member who’s heading home via The Viaduct says the left lane is closed for a stretch parallel to the south end of the waterfront (Coast Guard station on) so things are a little squeezed. Bridge update to come. Remember to scroll down for cam links and more.

4:15 PM UPDATE: First commute-home report from Vickie, who was worried about the Spokane St./Chelan Cafe’ area, but says Spokane “under the Harbor Ave offramps and to the north of Nucor doesn’t appear at this time to have any flooding troubles” — she says the low bridge, through that area, and up Avalon to 35th was all in good shape. (We have a WSB team member heading from downtown toward Morgan Junction soon and will have that update for you in a bit.) For those wondering about West Marginal Way – no trouble reported so far – here’s the city cam link.

4:10 PM UPDATE:Here’s a new press release from the city; it mentions that southbound lanes of the Battery Street Tunnel are closed, so if you get on 99 south of there, beware. No other West Seattle specifics aside from the Longfellow Creek flooding we have covered below.

3:35 PM ORIGINAL POST: We are gathering resources for drivers to check before heading back to West Seattle from workplaces elsewhere. First – so far as WS roads go – a recap of specific situations we have reported on further down the page: Remember that North Delridge has been the hardest-hit area (see photos and video below) – if you have to get to somewhere on Delridge, going around and approaching from the south is likely your best bet. Along Beach Drive, the mudslide’s not cleared yet (thanks to WSB sponsor Rhonda Porter from The Mortgage Porter for that update – she says on the north side, Beach Drive is closed at Jacobsen). For other roadway, here are some links to start with – we will add more info as we get/find it, including any reports you send about driving conditions:

Yet more photos coming in from Longfellow Creek, Allstar Fitness, and environs; we don’t want to add them atop the commute info, since that’s the most important stuff for a while longer, so we’ll be adding them one by one here; keep scrolling down to check. First, from Tim — along the creek, near SW Genesee, close to the 13th hole of West Seattle Golf Course:

From Kathy, another look at Allstar Fitness, awash in floodwater (let us know if you hear whether it plans to reopen tomorrow; we’ll check in the morning too):

ADDED 2:25 PM: “The creek has burst free!” reports Kristin, who took these photos on Juneau between Delridge and 26th, and says 26th is closed.

2:12 PM:Mike actually captured the fabled “car swamped to its roof” we heard about in the lot at Allstar Fitness (2:38 PM UPDATE: reader reports, it IS closed because of the flooding) – that’s the car in the background:

Thanks again to everyone who’s sending WSB info and pix to share. ADDED 3:50 PM: Yet another picture of the now-iconic flooded car at Allstar, this time from Lea Kuchan:

As mentioned below, Beach Drive is blocked by a mudslide in the 6000 block. 1:40 PM: Photo just in from Dawson (thank you!), who confirms this is close to the area where the city granted a permit for slope-side trees to be cut earlier this year (previous WSB report here):

There was a peeping Tom outside our neighbors houses off & on for about 2 hours last night. Neither house knew of the otherâ€™s peeper until about 10:00 pm. Apparently he had â€˜visitedâ€™ one & watched while the couple were hot tubbing a couple of hours earlier, â€˜visitedâ€™ the neighbors kidâ€™s room window across the street & waved at him about an hour after the first visit, & then back to look into the hot tubberâ€™s bedroom about an hour after that. At about 10:00 is when the kid saw him return to 1st visitâ€™s house & notified his dad. Needless to say, the police came shortly.

Unfortunately, not much could be I.D.â€™d. ~ 5â€²9â€³ – 5â€² 10â€³, slender build, all in black ( or at least dark clothing).

Police have stated & my husband has read that he has been around the neighborhood for about 5 weeks now and his territory seems to cover from Admiral to Genesse & from 45th to 53rd.

My observation: it was pouring rain for those few hours. The person is either persistent with foul weather gear or lives close enough to go home & dry the clothes before going back out.

Some WSB readers still might not be able to post comments because of our ongoing tech work but if you are seeing this – you should be able to – and Cali in Seaview would appreciate advice:

> We are looking for a good service to call to help us with our basement flooding. We have tried everything all morning, it is not stopping. I am sure there are other people going through the same thing. Any help would be much appreciated.

(Please scroll down to the bottom of this post for the latest info; today we are updating in chronological order rather than reverse chronological) Can’t say this often enough: If you don’t HAVE TO drive, don’t. The water’s accumulating faster than even the best drains can handle it. Looks like bridge access from Delridge to the high bridge is back; the Fauntleroy/Graham trouble spot is open but the water is very tricky to navigate – here’s photographic proof:

Please e-mail us with info on any flooding trouble you are experiencing or seeing, so we can share it. Newest note is from Greg Daly, who says:

We had 4″ of water in our basement this morning due to a plugged up drain,
so I thought readers might be interested (as I was) in local weather stations. There are two between Lincoln Park and Alki, you can watch the rain totals update live if you’re so inclined.

Here are the weather station links Greg mentioned: first one here, second one here. 11:07 AM UPDATE: From Vickie:

I was driving to work about an hour ago trying to figure out which way to go through Delridgeâ€¦the Allstar Fitness parking lot is completely flooded to the point where at least one car is totally submerged, you can just barely see its rooftop in the lower part of the lot. At the time I drove through the water in the lot was almost equal to the side street next to it and beginning to overflow into the street itself.

11:10 AM UPDATE: The WSB team member who’s currently roving with cameras verifies this, says the creek is definitely spilling over in spots, and also says the street is closed by Nucor/Allstar, and that someone at Nucor told him the plant is closed too (if anyone has info to the contrary, please e-mail us; we’ll try confirming by phone as well). 11:50 AM UPDATE: From Erin: “Just got back from dropping my husband off at the airport â€“ we had read earlier that W Marginal was flooded so we took the high bridge to I-5. There are long back ups (all the way to I-5) trying to get IN to the airport due to flooding, so please inform your readers to take 509/518 if that route is now open, or to leave plenty early.”

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Comments Off on Delridge ramp to West Seattle Bridge closed; other woes

Traffic reports say you canâ€™t get to The Bridge from Delridge because of deep water that even has a car stuck in it. Also, WSB reader â€œKâ€ warns everyone to check their basements â€” after waking up to flooding woes. 6:43 AM UPDATE: Also, if you use the The Viaduct, alternates might be a good idea because the Battery Street Tunnel is reported to be closed. There is one slight bit of good news – the National Weather Service says the strongest winds today will be “mainly north of Seattle” — so looks like we are “only” going to have to deal with the rain. 7:13 AM UPDATE: It’s likely slow going no matter where you are coming from — part of our team is trying to make it to The Bridge on Fauntleroy and reporting a delay that starts around Graham — because of very deep water, with city crews on the scene. Going to try to divert to 35th; will let you know if trouble ensues there. 7:30 AM UPDATE: Gave up on the 35th idea, still slogging along Fauntleroy past ex-Gee/ex-Huling — here’s the city cam:

7:45 AM UPDATE: Longfellow Creek is “as high as we have ever seen it,” says one nearby resident. Radio traffic report says cars are backed up on Admiral trying to get to The Bridge, too. 7:55 AM UPDATE: Our team member made it to The Bridge and says the left lane is closed, eastbound, roughly parallel with where you exit for Admiral on the other side – looks like a stalled car, tow truck getting in place, traffic moving OK eastbound once you get past it. 8:05 AM UPDATE: Just in from a reader: “West Marginal Way is closed about half way between the bridge and 509 (and there are several very deep very wide puddles even before the closure). This closure hasn’t made the traffic reports yet as far as I can tell. I found this out the hard way this morning.” 8:35 AM UPDATE: Natashia just e-mailed, “Both lanes of northbound 35th are backed up to one road before Morgan. I turned around to head back home, and had to miss turning left onto my road because southbound lanes were traveling tight & aggressive. Be careful out there — and be nice!! :)” (Here’s the traffic cam for 35th, NB cars coming toward the camera) 9:05 AM UPDATE: We’re heading out to check on flooded spots. If you need to drive somewhere, this is one of the best updated lists of “incidents” that we’ve seen.

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